Natural Disaster Management in India

Article that appeared in ESCI Newsletter

Natural Disaster Management in India

*Ayesha Bangi

1. Disaster can be defined as a serious disruption of the function of a society, causing widespread human, material/environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using its own resources.
2. India is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world. The location and geographical features render it vulnerable to a number of natural hazards such as cyclones, drought, floods, earthquakes, fire, landslides and avalanches. On an average 56 million people are annually affected by disasters in our country. 180,000 sq km of area is vulnerable to cyclones, 400,000 sq km area to floods, 915,000 sq km area to droughts and 1,760,000 sq km area to earthquakes.
3. The coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh are very vulnerable to cyclones. Since 1977, 13563 human lives have been lost and estimated losses amount to Rs 578073.37 lakhs. Under the current drought situation 836 mandals in 22 districts have been affected.
4. Over the years, India has developed and upgraded the monitoring, forecasting and warning systems to deal with natural disasters. The India Meteorology Department (IMD) tracks cyclones and gives warning to the concerned user agencies. Tracking is done through INSAT Satellite and cyclone detection radars. Warning is issued to cover ports, fisheries and aviation departments. The warning system provides for a cyclone alert of 48 hours and a cyclone warning of 24 hours. There is a special Disaster Warning System (DWS) for dissemination of cyclone warning through INSAT to designated addresses at isolated places in local languages.
5. The Central Water Commission (CWC) has a flood forecasting system covering 62 major rivers in 13 states with 157 stations for transmission of flood warning.
6. The IMD has divided the entire country into 35 meteorological sub-divisions. It issues weekly bulletins on rainfall indicating normal, excess and deficient levels and also the percentages of departure from the normal. The CWC monitors the levels of 60 major reservoirs with weekly reports of reservoir levels and corresponding capacity for the previous year and the average of the previous 10 years. Based on the inputs from IMD and CWC on the rainfall, water levels in reservoirs, the information on crop situations from local sources, the National Crop Weather Watch Group monitors the drought conditions.
7. On the basis of magnitudes and intensities past earthquakes of magnitudes and drawing upon tectonic features earthquake zonation maps have been prepared. IMD operates a network of 36 seismic monitoring stations.
8. Due to the frequency of occurrence of disasters and the losses incurred, it becomes evident that pre-disaster steps must be taken to reduce the damage and
destruction. This strategy commonly known as mitigation is defined as sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from hazards and their effects. Effective mitigation actions can decrease the impact, the requirements and the expense of a natural disaster.
9. Besides evolving effective warning systems, the government has also formulated and implemented mitigation programmes and sectoral development programmes to reduce the impact of disasters. Structural methods of flood mitigation by construction of new embankments and drainage channels have helped in raising 4700 critical villages above the flood level. The Government of India is now operating a Command Area Development Programme (CADP) to strengthen the water management capabilities and enhance the effectiveness of irrigation water application, aiming at reducing the incidences of drought. Measures such as building of cyclone shelters and afforestation in coastal areas have been undertaken to deal with cyclones. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is executing a World Bank assisted project on upgradation of seismological instrumentation and other collateral geophysical studies in the Indian Peninsular region. Major organisations like India Meteorological Department, National Geophysical Research Institute and Geological Survey of India are participating in the World Bank project.
10. Additional measures in the form of community initiated mitigation measures can help in further reducing the risk to people and property from natural disasters. The primary tools needed for this are community commitment, a community planning team and public input. Community disaster awareness initiatives which inform and train local people about how to prepare for natural disasters and emergencies can also reduce vulnerability to specific hazards.

References:
1. “Guide Book on Disaster Preparedness and Response (2001)”, West Bengal Voluntary Health Association, 2001.
2. Sagar Dhara, “Natural Disasters- Minimising the risk”, Survey of Environment, 2001.

Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to National Institute of Rural Development for the relevant data.